Inside a co-working space in Minneapolis Monday night, two dozen people took attentive notes and followed a presentation as an instructor taught the basics: How many cannabis plants they’re allowed to grow and what they will need to do it.

The class was a home-growing “boot camp” educating people on the new law legalizing marijuana this summer. And demand for other courses like it is increasing because Minnesotans eager to tap into the newly legal industry want to learn more, said Tanner Berris, president of the Minnesota Cannabis College.

“We’ve been having people calling us pretty much every hour of the day asking, ‘hey, I want to become part of this industry. I want to start a business. I’m looking for a job, or I just sort of want to learn more about growing at home.’ So it’s really been sort of us trained to be able to meet that demand,” Berris said.

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The group’s goal is to support entrepreneurs who want to become part of the industry and equip them with the training that they need. Soon there will be classes on business management, cannabis cultivation and “budtending,” for people who want to sell weed in retail stores.

There won’t be dispensaries — except for some tribal nations — until at least early 2025 as the new state office tasked with oversight gets up and running. But in the meantime, Minnesotans can grow up to eight plants in their home as of Aug. 1, which prompted the Minnesota Cannabis College to offer a class on how to do it, though their main focus is on the business of cannabis.

“I think my biggest surprise has been the number of people that are actually wanting to like, take that affirmative step of starting their own business,” he explained. “We’ve had people reach out that, yes, are cannabis enthusiasts, but also people that don’t use cannabis themselves who have just been prior business entrepreneurs and see this as a new opportunity and are looking for more information about sort of how to become part of that industry.”

Berris told WCCO his group has entirely booked most of its classes it has offered to date. Some are free but others have a fee to join.